Sorry – You Missed These Other Great Films from our Spring 2013 Season

SEEKING ASIAN FEMALE

Debbie Lum first met Steven, a 60-year old white man with a full-blown obsession for Asian women,
over 5 years ago in a suburb of San Francisco, California. As a Chinese-American woman, she originally intended to make an expose of what she thought were his demeaning and racist attitudes about Asian women. The film that develops–a story of cross-cultural challenges, love and friendship–comes as a complete surprise to her.

Shot in DV, mostly with a handheld camcorder, the film observes Steven from Lum’s point of view as he searches for his dream woman: a young bride from China. Twice-divorced and working as a garage attendant at the San Francisco airport, Steven writes to numerous women through an online dating site. As we watch him,often interacting with the director, his pursuit seems like fantasy. He meets and becomes engaged to a Chinese woman, a 30-year-old known as Sandy. Sandy comes to California with intentions to marry him. Sandy and Steven are captured during intimate moments during Sandy’s first months in America, while the director gets pulled deeper into their lives. Steven and Sandy negotiate their differences huddled around their computer and Google Translator.

SEEKING ASIAN FEMALE is primarily a film about facing and unlearning stereotypes and the judgments that stem from them. All three–Steven, Sandy and Debbie Lum– change the expectations that they held of each other before they met.

Run time: 85 minutes. English and Chinese. Filmed in USA and China

This film is presented in collaboration with the Charles B. Wang Center for Asian Studies, Stony Brook University

THE IMPOSTER

April 29 – PASSED
Theatre Three, Main Street, Port Jefferson Village, 7pm
Special Guest: Charlie Parker, the private investigator in the film

A gripping thriller straight out of real life, THE IMPOSTER is an original film experience that walks the razor’s edge between true-crime documentary and stylish noir mystery. Nicholas Barclay, a 13 year-old Texas boy, disappears on his way home from school. Three and a half years later Nicolas has been found, thousands of miles from home in Spain, the survivor of kidnap and torture by shadowy captors. His family is ecstatic to have him back– but things become strange once he returns to Texas.

Though the family accepts him, suspicion remains. How could the Barclay’s blonde, blue-eyed son have returned with darker-skin and eyes? How could his personality and even accent have changed so profoundly? Why does the family not seem to notice the glaring differences? And if this person who has arrived in Texas isn’t the Barclay’s missing child who on earth is he? And what really happened to Nicholas?

AI WEIWEI: NEVER SORRY

AI WEIWEI: NEVER SORRY is the first feature-length film about the internationally renowned Chinese artist and activist, Ai Weiwei. In recent years, Ai Weiwei has garnered international attention as much for his ambitious artwork as his political provocations. Alison Klayman, the director, writer and co-producer, examines the complex intersection of artistic practice and social activism as seen through the life and art of China’s preeminent contemporary artist. From 2008 to 2010, Beijing-based Klayman gained unprecedented access to Ai Weiwei. Klayman documented Ai’s artistic process in preparation for major museum exhibitions, his intimate exchanges with family members and his increasingly public clashes with the Chinese government. Her detailed portrait of the artist provides an exploration of contemporary China and one of its most compelling public figures.

Run time: 91 minutes. English with Chinese subtitles

Presented in collaboration with the Charles B. Wang Center for Asian Studies, Stony Brook University

DIANA VREELAND: The Eye Has To Travel

During her 50-year reign as “Empress of Fashion,” Diana Vreeland seemed to be
everywhere: advising Jackie Onassis, introducing Twiggy to America, editing
Harper’s Bazaar and then Vogue, and finally revitalizing the Met’s iconic
Costume Institute. Part the curtains and enjoy a closer look at one of the most
glamorous yet inscrutable legends of the fashion world.

Winner: Best Documentary, Chicago International Film Festival

Run time: 86 minutes English

NO PLACE ON EARTH

March 18- PASSED
See photos from the event here
Theatre Three, Main Street, Port Jefferson Village, 7pm
Special Guests:
Zac Nicholson, Director of Photography and Chris Beauchamp, Still Photographer

No Place on Earth brings to light the untold story of thirty-eight Ukrainian Jews who survived World War II by living in caves for eighteen months, the longest-recorded sustained underground survival. The males in the group would sneak back up to the surface to collect wood, food and supplies, placing themselves in grave danger each time, yet doing so to keep their families alive. In a region of Ukraine where less than five-percent of Jews survived, these brave souls beat the odds and walked back out into the sunlight unharmed to the newly liberated Russian territory. Built upon interviews with former cave inhabitants, as well as Chris Nicola, the caving enthusiast who unearthed the story, No Place on Earth is an extraordinary testament to ingenuity, will-power and endurance against all odds.

Winner Audience Award for the Best Documentary at the 2012 Hamptons International Film Festival

Run time: 83 mintutes English,German and Ukraine. Filmed in Ukraine

THE CENTRAL PARK FIVE

March 11 – PASSED
See photos from the event here
Theatre Three, Main Street, Port Jefferson Village, 7pm
Special Guests: Director David McMahon and several of the accused men

THE CENTRAL PARK FIVE a highly acclaimed film co-directed by Ken Burns, Sarah Burns and David McMahon, takes us back to 1989, when five black and Latino teenagers from Harlem were arrested and later convicted of raping and brutally beating a white woman in New York City’s Central Park. They spent between six and thirteen years in prison before a serial rapist confessed that he alone had committed the crime, resulting in their convictions being overturned. DNA testing conclusively confirmed that the teenagers were innocent. There had been a rush to judgment, based on racial stereotyping and fear.

This explosive new documentary examines the underlying causes of the mass hysteria of the times, and questions why New York City is refusing to settle a decade-long civil lawsuit brought by the men. It recalls the power of the classic film, 12 ANGRY MEN; and emphasizes the possible horrific outcome of justice denied, even today.

Nominated for the 2012 Best Non-Fiction Film by the New York Film Critics and received the Audience Choice Award for Best Documentary Feature at The Chicago International Film Festival.

MEA MAXIMA CULPA: SILENCE IN THE HOUSE OF GOD

March 4-PASSED
See photos from the event here
Theatre Three, Main Street, Port Jefferson Village, 7pm
Special Guests: Producers Jedd and Todd Wider.

“Short listed” for Academy Awards Consideration

Oscar®-winning filmmaker Alex Gibney examines the abuse of power
in the Catholic Church through the story of four courageous deaf men, who in the
first known case of public protest, set out to expose the priest who abused
them. Through their case the film follows a cover-up that winds its way from the
row houses of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, through the bare ruined choirs of Ireland’s
churches, all the way to the highest office of the Vatican.
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Run time: 1 hour 46 minutes English